Serious Advice Needed

GUNN

Merlot wrote: »

£950 will be your outgoings with your c/c and overdraft repayments. It is more than your net income, you cannot guarantee overtime especially in the current economic climate.

I urge you to think carefully about selling the car, if not that, then do look at your insurance and your entertainment budget, they are far too high.

Thanks merlot,

I am sending a reclaim letter for PPI, after reading the advice I feel I have a strong case under the mis-selling reasons.

After the advice given I am thinking about selling the car.

Fortunatly overtime in my business is always available, it is a realiable source of income and its encouraged that employees do overtime.

Unfortunatly insurance is business class, my premium is £2000 a year! This is due to the area I live in, my age, the type of business (and cargo I carry) etc... Me and my employer split the premium 50/50 so I pay more or less £1000 a year (£100 monthly payments).

I am cost cutting the entertainment budget as we speak, im hoping to get it down to about £50.

GUNN

It is indeed the rover engine, the repairs included the recent landrover modifications to the 1.8 K series engine. The modifications reduce the risk of HGF significantly and is under warranty if it fails again.

My boss pays for all business fuel, the £100 fuel budget is purely for social use which will be getting cut.

Rose_Crow

Blimey! £2700 sound steep for an HGF. I have an MGF with the same engine, repair for the head gasket cost me £400.

I don't know a huge amount about ZTs, but I'll ask my OH tonight about it.

secretspender_2

sell the car and swap it for a diesel

SteveyLomas

I think GUNN you know you should do the one thing you are clearly reluctant to - sell the car. I know you will have wasted money on this and that money will be sunk now, but if you can raise £3k from the car sale/swap, you could possibly, if you get your head down, be completely free in a year. Along with future pay rises you will be looking great for the future. If you keep this car, it will keep sucking your money for another 5 years.

Please think about it.

Also, I don't know your business but I do know overtime is never guaranteed. Never. Don't completely rely on it.

Idiophreak

secretspender wrote: »

sell the car and swap it for a diesel

Probably not a great idea - with the gap in price between unleaded and diesel set to increase, I don't believe the often marginal increase in economy is going to be worth the extra cost he'll pay to get the diesel in the first place.

Anyway, OP - Not meaning to sound patronising, but is your current wage a "training wage" or something? Does it offer you remarkable long-term chances?

Otherwise, something that would certainly help is "just" to get a better paid job...

Also, as albertross says, it isn't really on for your boss just to be covering petrol - you need something toward wear+tear etc too. (see the recommendations in the links..)

As for the entertainment budget, make sure you set it at a level you'll be able to maintain...I know I'm pretty much alone here, but £100 doesn't sound *too* much entertainment to me, for a 19 year old guy to go out, buy stuff, save for a holiday etc. You have to make sure you've got some down-time if you're working all this overtime.

Personally, I'd find it very hard to sell the car - paying £6k for a car that is worth a fraction of that would sting - but maybe it's the sting you need to make yourself a bit more financially adept in the future.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

GUNN

Thanks guys I really appreciate everything your saying.

The £2700 was for HGF,
£600 for Landrover mods
£900 for new turbo (water in the oil failed the bearings)
£180 for 2 new Lambda sensors (oil from the turbo contaminated them)
£250 for new catalytic converter as the oil had also clogged that.
£40 for MOT because it was due.
£190 for front balljoint & suspension arm as they were knackered and failed MOT.
£200 for disks and pads all round as they were also an MOT failure
£320 for tyres all round

As you have already guessed i really am reluctant to sell the car that iv just spend a lot of money putting right. I feel cheated as Iv sorted the "common problems" and niggles the car has and finally got it the way I wanted it. So to sell it for someone else to enjoy is soul destroying.

As for business miles my employer does indeed pay 42p a mile, everything on the business side is paid for lawfully, the fuel budget was purely social which I have cut to £65 a month.

My wage started off as a "probation" wage for 6 month with promised 6 monthly pay rises. I started off minimum wage for 18year old and have had £1000 per annum pay rises every 6 months. My job is within the Non destructive testing industy, we are repair engineers that service the x ray/gamma equipment. We are one of two companies in the UK who do the work, I have an HNC in electronic engineering, but I am currently still familiarising myself with all the different type of x ray equipment used (most of it from the 1960's!) hence why such a basic wage.